The Artists’ Coalition is calling on the Honourable Prime Minister and the government of Trinidad and Tobago to utilise Culture and the Creative Industries: as the arrowhead industries to lead the Diversification thrust of the nation; as an instrument to deal with crime; and as the force to cushion the blow of the recession for working class communities in the next 3 years,

The Creative Industries are the second largest industries on planet Earth with earnings of $2.2 Trillion annually recorded since 2001 with a then growth rate of 5% (Hopkins 2001).

The UK just released their Creative Industry data for 2015 and recorded that they were now earning £230.4 million (TT $2.3 billion) a day (!) from that industry.

That industry’s growth rate of over 8% is many a percentage point over their traditional industries like energy and manufacturing.

ACTT believes that the local Creative Sector could raise its annual foreign exchange contributions to the economy from its current plateau of $1.5 billion to over $6 billion+ in 5 short years.

The Minister of Finance has said that the current recession will last until 2019. ACTT has crafted a 3 year plan to grow the local Creative Sector geometrically whilst mapping the entire process. ACTT sees the initiative rolling-out alongside a Buy Local/Economic Patriotism initiative it will be partnering with other stakeholders on. The Creative Industry initiatives are critical because the country has invested billions in subsidising Arts education through GATE and the Academy of the Performing Arts- and is now losing its best graduates to Brain Drain because it has invested nothing in facilitating an Industry to receive these graduates. Read the rest of this entry →